EDCmooc – World Builders

Reasserting the human

World builder is a short film which explores some of the same themes (simulation, immersion, artifice) as the Toyota advertisement, though in a slightly more nuanced way.

A man uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves

Questions

What is your interpretation of this film?

The man wakes and realises that he has about an hour. At this stage we don’t know what will happen in an hour. It transpires that the woman will appear in holographic form at that time and will only be there for a short time.

He spends the hour creating a beautiful street in holographic form. He pays attention to detail in particular to one flower. When the woman appears he does not interact with her but watches her interact with the environment he has created. He is hiding which suggests that he able to interact with her but chooses not to this time.

The holographic world has a short life span and disappears as does the woman. We then see her in a hospital bed. on the door of her room is “Neuro Holographic Recovery Unit”. She is unconscious The man puts the flower into the glass be her bed. There is some crossover between what is real and what is holographic.

The woman is between the real and the holographic world. She is able to interact with the holographic and maybe real world for certain periods. She is recovering from neurological effects of holographic stimulation.

In what ways does it position ‘the human’ in relation to the technological?

The human is somewhat in control of the technology but it is not stable.

The man is totally in control of using the technology to create. He is able to manipulate the holograms with hand movements. He is able to use it as one would an iPad to create artwork but in three dimensional form.

He is not able to make the hologram last or to store it in some type of memory as he would be able to do with flat forms of art. It would appear that the art has to be recreated each time from nothing. The flower survived. A small crossover from holographic to reality or was this a residue of a hologram that he managed to manipulate. I am not sure. Maybe just a poignant touch for the film.

The woman has no control. She may have once had control. Now she is recovering. If she is able to recover this leads me to believe that the holograms that have defeated her are also not of a permanent nature.

What does it say about ways in which human emotion can be manipulated by digital simulation?

Is this purely digital simulation or is it an art form that is manipulating the emotions?

I think it would have had exactly the same effect had he spent the hours creating a world of sand to be washed away by the sea. Or pavement art that is eventually worn away on the shoes of pedestrians. He has spent hours in the creation of something beautiful and temporary for this person to enjoy.

I don’t think that I have any different emotions when I see iPad art than when I see other art. It is impressive yes but then so are a lot of things that don’t rely on digital simulation, Disneyland for example. Maybe this is just me. I remember feeling very emotional when I first went on a horror train at the fair ground or amazed at Space mountain.